"JEY" 2005 Obituary

JEYAKUMARAN o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.toronto_star 2005-01-16 published
Toronto's first 2005 slaying
Teen abducted from work, knifed
By Jordan HEATH-
RAWLINGS,
StaffReporter
Thanushan JEYAKUMARAN was just preparing to enter the next phase
of his young life.
Twenty-four hours later he was dead, Toronto's first homicide
victim of 2005.
The 18-year-old Sri Lankan Tamil said goodbye to his Friends
at a London, Ontario, bus stop on Thursday night, as he headed
back to Toronto to prepare for work on Friday morning.
He had been working long hours and extra shifts at the New Spiceland
Super Market on Sheppard Ave. E. near Markham Rd. in Scarborough
for the past two years, trying to raise the money required to
bring his parents to Canada. He sent home about 75 per cent of
his earnings, and he almost had enough. Once that was done, he
wanted to move to London, to live with the Friends he had made
before he left high school after Grade 10 to work full-time.
Before he climbed out of their car in London on Thursday night,
he told them to "get the apartment" where they had talked about
moving in together. "I'll be there with you," he said.
According to police,
JEYAKUMARAN was abducted from his workplace
at about 8: 50 Friday night by at least three assailants, attacked
outside -- where police say he suffered sharp-force injuries
to his body -- and was then left to bleed to death in a nearby
park.
He was found about 20 minutes later, in McLevin Park near Tapscott
Rd. and McLevin Ave. He died from his injuries at Sunnybrook
hospital. Two men were also found in the same park and arrested
on Friday night.
The two men arrested -- Rajeevan
ATPUTHARAJAH, 20, of Markham
and Franklin
NESARAJAH, 21, of Scarborough -- were to be charged
with first-degree murder yesterday, said Det. Sgt. Reg
PITTS
of the homicide squad.
Police are still searching for "three or four more people within
the division," said
PITTS, and they expect that "at least one
or two of those people will be charged."
Police recovered a knife -- from the sidewalk about 50 metres
away from the Spiceland market -- which will undergo forensic
examination, and they were searching yesterday for a dark-coloured
1989 Toyota Camry, which may have been involved in the crime.
JEYAKUMARAN arrived in Canada in 2000 and lived with his uncle
for his first few years in the country. But he moved out about
a year ago, to a basement apartment near the Sri Lankan and West
Indian grocery market where he often worked a double shift, his
uncle said yesterday.
"He was a hard worker, a very hard worker," a tearful Sinnathurai
KATHIRGAMANATHAN, 37, said yesterday at 42 Division police station.
"My nephew could not have been involved in anything... He was
always working. He only had one day off a week."
PITTS said yesterday that "you could say some of them knew each
other," referring to
JEYAKUMARAN and his multiple attackers.
There were no indications of gang-related activity, he said.
"That's a bit of a mystery at this point,"
PITTS said of a possible
motive for the crime, though he added that the events leading
to the killing "may have been started two weeks ago over a minor
dispute."
JEYAKUMARAN's
Friends couldn't remember any disputes between
their friend and other Sri Lankans, nor did they recognize the
names of the two men arrested in connection with his murder.
JEYAKUMARAN was a peacemaker, they said.
"We know him very well," said Lojan
SRIANANDAN, 19. "He doesn't
just go into problems, but he does stand up. He stands up for
us."
Whenever a dispute would arise between the close-knit group of
teens and other Sri Lankans -- an occurrence that can stem from
nothing more than "hanging around with people... not from your
territory" --
SRIANANDAN said that
JEYAKUMARAN would be the first
to step in and calm things down.
"It's so unnecessary,"
SRIANANDAN said of territorial disputes
among young Tamils. "It just cost us a life... he was our brother.
He was the peacekeeper and now he's gone."